Advice to the new kid on the block

Leading the US DOT doesn't sound like a walk in the park.

So, I asked the United States' longest serving transport secretary what advice he would give to newbie Ray LaHood.

"Keep [your] nose above the water line," Norman Mineta says. "The transportation industry is a great sector of our economy but it's got problems everywhere. Don't get overwhelmed."

The only Democrat to hold a cabinet position in the George W. Bush administration, Mineta was confirmed as DOT secretary in January 2001.

He was one of six cabinet members to be reappointed for President Bush's second term, but Mineta resigned in July 2006.

The former congressman has a history of aviation policy on his resume. He chaired both the House public works and transportation committee and the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority board of review during his 21-year career in Congress.

After retiring from Congress in 1995, Mineta chaired the National Civil Aviation Review Commission, which issued a report in 1997 predicting gridlock at US airports.

Photo from Carlos Osorio/AP file